


Sunflowers

by jelly_pies



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, F/M, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Not A Fix-It, One Shot, Peter Parker Angst, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 11:34:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18810073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jelly_pies/pseuds/jelly_pies
Summary: Whether visiting Tony's memorial or his actual grave, Peter Parker brings sunflowers. Maybe it helps him cope.





	Sunflowers

**Author's Note:**

> Written before the second Spider-Man: Far from Home trailer came out. I'm new here, any feedback would be much appreciated! :D

Today I bought sunflowers. The shopkeeper noticed.  
  
"None of the usual today, Mr. Parker? We got a fresh batch of white lilies."  
  
"Oh, yeah, uh, no thanks, Joe. These are for... someone else."  
  
I brought the sunflowers on the subway. Swinging would have been faster, but it'd ruin the petals. Besides, I like taking the slow route sometimes. Gives me time to think.  
  
The memorial stands where it's always been. I spent a few minutes staring at it, as if anything might have changed since my last visit. The same two figures at the center: the man and woman who gave their lives in a direct sacrifice for those damned stones. The same rectangular slabs around them, listing names of the other fallen. Other heroes, Wakandan soldiers, sorcerers, even civilians.  
  
The center statues bother me more than I like to admit. She looks like she's always looked, I guess, with that same steely-eyed determination she had at the airport. But as for the other one...  
  
They had decided to depict him in the suit, without his helmet. He looked how this world must have remembered him --- genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Crossed arms, a smirk, shining eyes, like saving the world had been just another conquered project and he was now reveling in its glory. He didn't look like the guy who hugged me on that battlefield.  
  
Flowers literally lay scattered at his feet, boquet upon boquet of tributes. I laid my sunflowers by one of the name-covered slabs instead.  
  
"What?" I smirked back up at his image. "You get enough of your own. Really, it's almost unfair--"  
  
My voice caught. I coughed lamely to hide it.  
  
_Unfair._

 

* * *

  
  
Today I brought sunflowers. They had me over for the weekend, for Morgan's birthday. Of course, her wish was to pay a visit to the cemetary.  
  
The contrast between this and the memorial was staggering. The Starks were always gracious to the public, but they also valued their privacy. Small, no gaudy statues, no mention of Iron Man. It's Tony Stark who's buried here.  
  
I placed the sunflowers by his gravestone. It's different here. It feels different. Here I'm not just another intern, one out of hundreds, honoring a benefactor and moving on. I used to think I was lucky. Lucky a billionaire had apparantly stalked my early hero sightings on YouTube. Lucky I was more than just another intern.  
  
I'm not so sure I'm lucky anymore.

 

* * *

   
  
Today I told her. I thought it was just something she hadn't got around to doing yet, something forgotten in the bustle of moving on after your husband's death. Turns out, she didn't even know.  
  
She told me it was my call. That she wouldn't cancel it until I wanted her to. It was my choice.  
  
Memorials had sprung up in a lot of places over the last five years, rows upon rows of name-covered slabs. One of them has my name on it. The Vanished, they called us. They used to be filled with flowers, too --- half of the world mourning the other half. Now that we're not so vanished anymore, I wonder if they'll ever take them down.  
  
But until then, at least one of those slabs will always get a fresh boquet every month. The freshest sunflowers, paid out of a certain billionaire's account. I can't bring myself to have it cancelled.  
  
Maybe it's my way of coping. Maybe it makes the whole thing feel more like an exchange than a requiem. Maybe one day I can bring myself to tell her to have it cancelled. Bring white lilies to his grave instead, same as I do for my parents and uncle.  
  
Maybe one day. But not yet. Today I'm gonna take the subway. Today I'm gonna stare up at that statue, critizing and hoping somewhere, he finds it funny too.  
  
Today I'm bringing sunflowers.

**Author's Note:**

> So the sunflower idea was inspired by this interview where ScarJo said she gave RDJ sunflowers for his birthday. It just kinda stuck with me. Review please <3


End file.
